Puppy abandoned outside store now completely unrecognizable

By Chelsea Tirone

Friends to the Forlorn

When you see a dog tied up outside of a store, your first reaction may be their owner stopped in to pick up something quick. That’s what many people thought when they passed by the little pit bull puppy, Dempsey.

Dempsey was just seven months old when he was abandoned outside of a drugstore in Georgia. No one thought the puppy was abandoned until it was hours later and no one came to claim him. To make matters worse, Dempsey wasn’t a healthy, cute-looking puppy. He looked like this:

Thankfully, someone finally called animal control and they came to pick-up Dempsey. He made his way to DeKalb County Animal Services where he was taken to the vet. Dempsey suffered from an eye infection and severe mange (a skin disorder caused by parasites):

Despite his terrible condition, Dempsey immediately touched the hearts of the staff at DeKalb County Animal Services. They reached out to Friends to the Forlorn Pitbull Rescue in Atlanta where Stacey Greenwald, a volunteer with the group, took Dempsey in: